025 - New Patterns And Old Ones

As they moved through the palace, the escort guards fell off until there was just one guardswoman left holding her leash, as they walked. The woman in green led the way from the throne room in to the heart of the complex. As they walked, Roxanne noticed the back of her green dress was cut to the waist as the front was. The guards and other passers-by all paid deference to the woman as she went. Roxanne just did the best she could to look dignified, as she followed wearing only a slave collar, with a comparatively large female guard holding her leash. To her relief, most of the people were too involved in their own activities to gawk.

They ascended several levels up a well with stairs around the perimeter. Columns of several sizes stood at regular intervals, demarking squares of area. They passed into a guarded area and up to a large set of closed doors on the right side of a hall, between columns. The door guards opened the right hand door and the woman in the green dress stepped in, leaving the door open for Roxanne and her escort to follow.

This hall was taller than the one they left, having windows above the ceiling line of the previous hallway letting in sunlight. Roxanne thought how the house Steven and she lived in would fit in this space with room to spare. The columns and squares motif and design continued here. The woman in green was already heading down this hall. More double doors lined the hall on either side between columns at regular intervals. Torch and candleholders were interspersed among the banners hung against the walls. With the light coming in the high windows the torches were not lit.

The woman pointed at the first set of doors on the left as they came in. “These rooms on the left are yours, for now. The ones on the right are mine. You don’t go in there without an invitation. You will find a wash room beyond the bedchamber. Keep them clean. We will furnish them later.”

The woman moved swiftly to the end of the hall. The stone floor in this hall was cold to stand on, but tolerable. Rox realized that the floors she had been walking on to this point had been comfortably warm. However it was her lack of modest attire that most bothered Rox, but she was in no position to say anything. They came to the end of the hall, and the woman opened a pair of double doors. After grabbing the single lit torch in the hall she went in the room. The guard and Roxanne followed.

 “Just wait by the door. The room needs to warm up. And I don’t want you to bump into anything.”

Rox was not sure if this was said to the guard, or her.

The woman made her way around a round room lighting torches in wall sconces, muttering to herself all the way along and opening curtains exposing glass windows. It was just before lunchtime here, the light radiating in, rather than shining directly. The room had an arched ceiling. Roxanne could not quite see more while her eyes adjusted to the light. As the woman came around, she spoke again, to the guard.

“Undo the bindings, and take them away. Then return to your duties.” She put the torch in an empty sconce, and started to poke around the shelves on one side of the room. She then left the room, still muttering.

The guard-woman spoke only as needful as she unlocked and removed the collar. The guard-woman then took the collar and leash and left, closing the doors to the suite as she went through them. Roxanne looked around at the room while waiting, both out of curiosity, and to find something to cover up with.

The room was round, in eight sections, with tables and shelves arrayed around the walls, regularly interspersed with seven large windows, their curtains now secured open. The door filled the place for the eighth window. The floor had several patterns and depressions cut in it, leaving the middle open, about 15 feet across. The tables had all sorts of bottles and jars scattered on them, as did most of the shelves. There was one table and shelf that looked to have direct light on it all day, which was covered with an orderly collection of books and papers. Roxanne began absently poking around the bottles on the closest of the tables when the woman came back in, her arms full of jars.

 “Get out of those. Disturb them wrong, and it could be dangerous.” The woman watched as Rox stopped and turned around.

“Good. The spell I cast to help you comprehend my language is working. From now on until I give leave otherwise, as my ‘slave’ and ‘apprentice’, you will not do anything without my permission. Now, stand here and be silent, unless spoken to.”

Rox moved to where she was bidden slightly upset at being a slave. But she also recognized that she had no power here. She was not forbidden to watch, so she did this with interest.

“You will address me as My Lady, and speak of me as The Sorceress.” The Sorceress said this as she put her armload of stuff on a small table to one side, and arranged it. Then she turned, and gave Rox an appraising look.

“Temperature variations have never meant very much to you, have they?”

Rox was not sure what this had to do with anything, but she had not achieved a second-degree black belt by being unwilling to accept a master. “No, my lady. I could wear a light jacket over my everyday clothes in the dead of winter and be comfortable.”

“Were you told to do anything with your newborn daughter? Words to say? Patterns to trace?”

“My lady, my mother and grandmother both told me the take the newborn; place it in a pentagram with the child’s head between the top two points, and to the north. Then to recite this phrase.” As Rox spoke the phrase, she sensed the power it invoked build in the air around her for a moment.

The Sorceress only nodded, pursing her lips. She considered something for a moment, than spoke again. “Your mother’s and grandmother’s hair silvered early?”

“Yes, my lady. I expect mine will come in in-force before my children are married.”

“I think much sooner than that.”

The Sorceress picked up a large masonry jug of something, and walked to a pattern carved in the stone floor. Then held the jug under one arm. “Come here. Lay on your back in the center of this circle, with your head here, and your body that way.” She pointed where and which direction on the carved floor. “Tell me your full name, then don’t say or do anything to break my concentration.”

The Sorceress then stood and waited as Rox moved onto the image, and lay down.

“Roxanne Clarice Winslow Michaelsdotor.”

The Sorceress then took and started to pour a thin stream of powder from the jug into the shallow circle, most of the way around, muttering as she went. Rox sensed power being organized as she was circled. The sorceress then placed several items at geometric points, and crossed into the circle. She then closed it and Rox felt the power organize, then expand no farther than the circles inner edge. The sorceress placed seven stones on Roxanne’s body, at positions corresponding to points her sensei had called chakra points. The Sorceress then took a flask of salt water, and splashed it on Rox’s belly. The sudden cool of it caused her to flinch slightly. The Sorceress then stepped back, and stood at Rox’s feet, and started a brief chant, which she repeated three times with slight variations. Rox felt more power organize, center on the seven stones and other items in the circle, and form a pattern. Also the water on her became uncomfortably warm. The Sorceress came to a crescendo as the power completely organized, and the water felt as if it were going to consume her whole body with fire, her head and ears especially. The whole time, the stones stayed cool with power swirling around them. Then the stones flared, the water ceased to burn, and the power peaked, and dissipated. When this was all done The Sorceress looked at Rox, with a satisfied look.

“I have just performed a general dispelling of magic on you, then reset the language spell. If you had given me your married name, rather than your birth name with a patronymic end, it would have gone quicker. You may set the stones aside, and go wash. As you do, take a good look at yourself in the looking glass. You will see your true features. Also you will find that your body temperature will raise some, and that you can sense more things than before. When you were an infant, you had a spell placed on you that hid your true features and a few other things about your body. It is the same spell that you placed on your own daughter. I have just removed that spell from you.” The Sorceress then set about cleaning up the things she had put on the floor.

Rox set the stones together, and left the room.